Land of 10,000 Workflows

A Blog About Personal Information Management

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Claire Stewart, Associate University Librarian for Research & Learning at the University Libraries, talks about the technology and tools that she uses in her daily life. Her favorite: Wunderlist. And she is on the verge of dumping her laptop entirely for a desktop in the office and an iPad 6th generation when she's mobile.

Susan Warfield directs the Student Parent Help Center program for U of M students who are pregnant or parenting children through their academic degrees. Her favorite tool to use is her digital camera to document events.

Working on behalf of all of the library staff, Kate Peterson and and Katherine Gerwig coordinate the Libraries' presence at many events during Orientation and Welcome Week. They work closely with Orientation and Transition Experiences and other campus offices such as the University Bookstores and the Institute on the Environment to connect events with library spaces and relevant initiatives and services.

Rebecca Moss, a librarian who works for Liberal Arts Technologies and Innovation Services that supports the College of Liberal Arts and beyond, shares her favorite tools — including the iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and the app, Notability.

Geoffrey Ghose, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Radiology, runs a lab studying the physiological basis of cognitive factors such attention and learning at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research. He's an advocate for LyX, which bills itself as a cross-platform, WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) LaTeX frontend, for around 20 years. "For me the biggest appeal was that it wasn’t Word, the program which everyone loves to hate." He also uses Overleaf and Mendely.

Jenny Porter, Associate Director for Welcome Week and First-Year Programs, uses Wunderlist, Google Docs, and Excel to keep on task when planning out Welcome Week activities at the University of Minnesota.

Barn manager Sue Penney shares tips and tools to care for a "teaching herd" of horses owned by the College of Veterinary Medicine. These horses are model patients for veterinary students in their clinical rotations.

Exercise, to-do lists, Google Docs, large blue bags from Ikea, and Petzl headlamps are some of Bryan Karban's favorite tools for making his life more efficient. Karban is the Climbing and Trips Coordinator for the University of Minnesota Outdoor Program.

Northrop Stage Manager/Audio Supervisor Brad Kern spent 15 years touring the United States, running sound for such bands as Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic, and N*E*R*D before his audio career in the corporate world. He's been at Northrop since 2014, working a mix of concerts, dance, lectures, and University events.

Courtney Tchida uses hardware tools — real hardware, like a broadfork and power harrow — and smartphone software apps to help her stay on task in her role as Student Program Coordinator for the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Minnesota.

‘Land of 10,000 Workflows’ Blog

About ‘How I Work’

"How I Work" is an interview series about the tools and workflows people use at the University of Minnesota. We're interested in stories, interesting tools, and low- and high-tech stuff you use in your day-to-day work.

If you would like to share your workflow with us please contact us at pim-lib@umn.edu.